If you are tired of predictable, formulaic romantic comedies but are
still in the mood for some variation of the boy-meets-girl theme with
whimsical thriller underpinnings, give ‘Home Fries’ a try. Vince
Gilligan’s droll script is so idiosyncratic and loopy as to border on
the unclassifiable.

One of the good things about ‘Home Fries’ overall is that it’s tough to
describe without blowing some of the plot surprises right off the bat.
Suffice to say that Sally Jackson (Drew Barrymore), a resident of a
small Texas town, is all set for life as a young, unwed mother. Sally
simply cannot trust the daddy of her soon-to-be-born baby to be a
responsible parent, even before the father-to-be -- an older, married
man -- dies of a heart attack. What nobody (except those responsible
and the audience) knows is that the fatal seizure was triggered by
pursuit from a gunboat helicopter. Then Dorian (Luke Wilson) comes into
Sally’s life. A genuinely sweet guy, Dorian would like to keep Sally
out of the craziness of his family, but that may not be possible …

One of the good things about ‘Home Fries’ overall is that it’s tough to
describe without blowing some of the plot surprises right off the bat.
Suffice to say that Sally Jackson (Drew Barrymore), a resident of a
small Texas town, is all set for life as a young, unwed mother. Sally
simply cannot trust the daddy of her soon-to-be-born baby to be a
responsible parent, even before the father-to-be -- an older, married
man -- dies of a heart attack. What nobody (except those responsible
and the audience) knows is that the fatal seizure was triggered by
pursuit from a gunboat helicopter. Then Dorian (Luke Wilson) comes into
Sally’s life. A genuinely sweet guy, Dorian would like to keep Sally
out of the craziness of his family, but that may not be possible …

Director Dean Parisot maintains a tone of sunny, affectionate
eccentricity. He and writer Gilligan genuinely like their offbeat
characters, who are unusual without being grotesque. Gilligan’s
narrative eventually connects a lot of disparate, odd events in
amusingly coherent fashion; no plot threads (least of all the ones
involving the helicopter) are left dangling.

Barrymore manages to balance an air of practicality with a hint of
flighty whimsy, not an easy combination to pull off (though she’s not
always successful with Sally’s Texas accent). Wilson is the epitome of
a kind young Texas gentleman, albeit a troubled one. As Dorian’s wilder
brother Angus, Jake Busey has a persuasive glint of madness in his
eyes. Physically and in manner, Busey is uncannily like a 20ish
incarnation of his actor father, Gary. Catherine O’Hara plays a
domineering, manipulative matriarch with the sort of self-justifying
fragile ferocity associated with Tennessee Williams heroines, deployed
here to humorous effect.

Parisot does lovely things with color and light on the outdoors
sequences, relishing dusk and dawn on the Texas landscape. His isolated
burger joint (a main setting) is suitably tacky yet inviting.
Soundwise, ‘Home Fries’ is laudably complicated. Chapter 2 pulls
together helicopter rotors, fire from mounted guns, several sets of
dialogue on crossed headset wavelengths, the musical score and even the
nicety of dirt-road grit hitting a car windshield in the chopper’s
wake. Another good combination of helicopter roar, ambient acoustics
and musical score can be found in Chapter 22.

‘Home Fries’ suffers somewhat from not knowing how to reach its finale.
While the characters’ ultimate fates feel right, the route by which the
climax is reached is a mite abrupt. Otherwise, the film’s blend of
love, bloodless mayhem, endless scheming, bursts of action and general
lunacy give it singular allure. Certainly ‘Home Fries’ isn’t exactly
like anything you’ve ever seen before.